New Website, New Blog

Find me here:
Website
Blog
Instagram
Twitter
Facebook
Pintrest

BIG BLOG MOVE

Hi Everyone, 

My new book Lint Boy is coming out in June of this year, WOOHOO! 

More on that later.

While thinking of a possible website for my book, I realized that my personal site was in dire need of a serious update first. After much research and agonizing, I decided to use Wordpress to redesign the new website. Lint Boy will have it's own section there. 

Unfortunately, that means that my blog is moving over there too. 

I really appreciate you Peeps reading my blog posts here over the years, and I hope you will continue to do so in the new location.

Thank you Blogger, you are easy to use and have been very reliable, but it's time for us to part ways now. I wish you all the best.

*

Annual Woodland Faire

Come join us!
Loving the poster. (Not my illustration)

A Beautiful Quote

"My work is loving the world.

Are my boots old?

Am I no longer young, and still not half-perfect?

Let me keep my mind on what matters,

which is my work,

which is mostly standing still

and learning to be astonished."

-from Messenger by Mary Oliver

                       *

WinkPens

People, I really like this pen project! As a lover of plant dyes, I think it's so cool
that this pen writes with wine, soy sauce spinach juice, food coloring, etc.
All the dyes you can come up with. You can make you own colors, try out new
stuff, have fun. I backed their Kickstarter campaign a whole while ago, and I
have been waiting for the pen to be sent to me for too long. But it looks like that
wait will be over soon.
Check out this movie they just sent out.

A Bright Sunshiny Day

I created this Treasury on Etsy, because I needed some brightness in my day today.

It makes me happy just looking at all the wonderful items. I hope it does the same for you!

*

The World Is Going Insane

Hi Peeps,

My favorite singer, composer, and musician friend, Pam Aronoff, and her partner Jim Watts, just finished a really cool Music Video.

Their band is called Rebel Alien, and the song, Politricks (The World Is Going Insane).

They worked with some great people; Steve Hanft animated the video, Bunny Saint Martin composited it.

The song is fun, the lyrics great, and the animation is refreshingly loose and spontaneous.

Check it out! 

*

Creating something beautiful

Now that I am done with the paintings for Lint Boy, I am taking some time every day to work through a section of the mountain of email that has piled up over that last 6 months. Not my favorite thing to do, but it has to be done.

Once in a while I come across a little light point. Here is one of those fun surprises.

By @core77 Tag to be featured #tuvaldekisanat Snapchat 》 @seyhmuskinoYouTube 》 https://www.youtube.com/user/seyhmuskinoInstagram >> https://instagram.com/tuvaldekisanat/
Posted by Tuvaldeki Sanat on Tuesday, February 9, 2016

Update

Good morning to you. I'm glad to see that you are doing well.

It has been a very long time, and much has happened...

I have been working non stop on my next book, a graphic novel called LINT BOY, published soon-ish by Clarion Publishing.

Lint Boy is getting nearer to completion  Nearer but not there yet. 

All of 128 pages will be painted in water colors, and I have many more to do.

Here a detail of page 21.

I will keep you posted.

Wishing you a wonderful Holiday Season!

*

Fish with Pipe

My painting for the Spring Soiree Auction.

Will be Auctioned off at the Westside Waldorf Spring Soiree

on March 28 at the Santa Monica Bay Women's Club.

*

The Westside Waldorf Spring Soiree Fundraiser is coming up!

Buy tickets here. You can also go to the online auction now.

*

Sage

Here is the second doll I made, her name is Sage.

*

Waldorf Doll Workshop

We just finished up a Waldorf doll making workshop at the Westside Waldorf School.

It was the first doll making workshop I led, and it was a very pleasant experience.

The people who chose to make dolls with me were wonderful, the dolls they created, lovely. It's so rewarding to create beautiful things together with other people.

I definitely want to repeat the experience next year.

The workshop will take place some time in the spring of 2015, on the Westside of Los Angeles. It will be open to the larger public. There will only be 10 spaces available and it fills up quickly.

I'll make another announcement when I know more.

*

Woodland Faire 2014

Been gone, been busy, not been blogging, sorry!

Come join us.
I'll be in the Owl and the Fox Store.

Author/Illustrator Blog Tour

First, I want extend my thanks to Johanna Wright for asking me to participate in this wonderful Blog tour. I met Johanna quite a few years ago at the Renegade Craft Fair in Brooklyn. She had a table full of magical little paintings, and I immediately fell in love with her work. 

When her first picture book, The Secret Circus came out, it was clear that Johanna had some great stories up her sleeve as well.
I am looking forward to see her newest book, The Orchestra Pit, soon.

What am I currently working on?

I am (and have been for a while,) working on a big graphic novel project called Lint Boy. (Clarion 2016). I'm excited to be working on a book for ages 9-12, It gives me more freedom to make the story and characters darker, with a pinch of wicked.  

How does my process differ from others in its genre?

I'm not sure what other peoples processes are like, so it's hard to say how mine differs. I love to work in different media, try different papers, paints, crafts, work with wool and fibers, learn new skills, take classes, and spend hours in my studio making things. 

So far, for each of my books I have worked in a different way. Lint Boy will be water color with inked lines, not unlike the process for Hugging Hour, but it has a very different look. Bella & Bean, I drew on paper, scanned and painted digitally, and City Hall, I painted with acrylics. In my near future I'd like to illustrate a book with my needle felted figurines.

Why do I write what I write?

My stories mostly evolve from characters. The characters in turn are born from doodles, sketches, or dolls I make. In the case of Lint Boy, the character and story idea came about when I was making one of my first dolls. I was surprised how much stuffing it took to fill a small fabric creature.  I was looking around for stuffing material when the dryer chimed it's done signal. A full load of bath towels creates a whole bunch of lint, problem solved. My little guy was going to be stuffed with lint and named Lint Boy, all kinds of images and scenes exploded in my brain. I'm also inspired by settings, locations, and objects I like to draw.

How does my individual Writing and Illustration process work?

While I'm sketching characters, or making them out of fibers, ideas for stories grow in my mind. I go with the flow, sleep on it, before I start writing. I write a couple of hours a day, until the story has it's first solid form, then put it away for minimum a week, while I work on something else. I need to do this to get some perspective and to see what I wrote with a more critical eye. Then, that process repeats itself while I rewrite and revise. The story has to be close to finished before I start drawing again. I have learned my lesson the hard way. If I start drawing too soon, I tend to get attached to certain images, I then try to incorporate those into the story, often at a cost.
As for my illustration process. I first do a thorough study of each character, sketching front back and side views, plus expressions and emotions, I also write down a little background story for them, to understand their motivations better. After I'm satisfied with all the characters,  

I sketch out the story in large thumbnails. Then, I go page per page and refine the sketches. I sometimes scan the drawing into photoshop to work on the layout. Finally, I do the finished drawing on the appropriate (water color) paper. I always scan the final drawing before I paint, so I can do color studies in photoshop. 
Then, over a couple of days I make the water color painting.
Bella & Bean I painted digitally.

Who am I tagging?

I haven't found the right people yet, sorry. I have a couple of emails out and I'm waiting to hear back. So, please be patient, I will announce my Author and/or Illustrators in my next  post.

From my Sketchbook II

On this page I was sketching different positions for a painting.

Here, the final painting, which, I believe I have posted before. (for sale on Etsy)

Happy Summer!

*

From my Sketchbook

When I'm jotting down ideas, or scribbling away at a friends house, people often ask to see my sketchbook. And, I understand. I am always curious myself when I see someone drawing on the subway or on the street.  Sketchbooks are where the raw ideas are born.

Today I'll be sharing the fist of a random page from my current dirty smudgy sketchbook.

Happy Summer

*

Quote of the week

‘Today you are you, that is truer than true.  There is no one alive who is youer than YOU.’  - Dr Seuss

SCBWI Bulletin Cover

I was very excited to be invited to illustrate the cover of the SCBWI Bulletin. The painting is on this months publication, which just arrived in the mail today. 

Here is the painting.

 As I mentioned in the interview (one always accompanies the cover design), I often scan my illustration before I start the watercolor painting. I use the scan of the illustration to do a detailed digital color study. Once in a while it may occur that I like the study better than the watercolor painting itself. 

The watercolor painting made it as the final this time.

I included the digital study below.

*

Swim That Rock!

Dear friends and family,

       I am excited to announce that my husbands novel SWIM THAT ROCK co-authored with longtime friend, Jay Primiano, is in stores now.  They spent five years nurturing this book and seeing it finally arrive on bookstore shelves is overwhelmingly satisfying. 

Swim That Rock - a book trailer from John Rocco on Vimeo.

To purchase the book:

      -find your independent book seller. 

      -or at Amazon. 

      -or at Barnes&Noble.